In A Year Of Great Storytelling, My Top 5 Ads Of 2016

CMO Network -
Will Burns is an advertising veteran and current CEO of Ideasicle.com.

I'm sure I didn't see every single video ad in 2016. But, being in the industry, the good ones tend to quickly bubble up and catch my attention. And the best ones - the ones we can all learn from, good or bad - are the ones I write about. Today, I went back through all of my posts in 2016 - nearly 60 of them - and chose my favorite five ads that I reviewed this year.

My criteria is not purely based on "creativity," but that's an important component. It's based on creativity and strategy. Because a creative film without a strategy is not advertising, it's just entertainment.

Here you go. Starting with #5. As Clark Griswold would say before plugging in the lights, "Drumroll please..."

#5: Sonos "You're Better Than This"

This ad (and campaign) is simply great product advertising. It is not only focused like a laser beam on a single product attribute - songs sound better on real speakers - but the ad wraps the message up in an insight that has a "we've all been there" quality to it: we've all experienced the letdown of using inadequate speakers to hear a song.

The ad wisely complements us with "You're better than this." There are :15 takedowns that are worth seeing as well.

Although it didn't end up putting Hillary Clinton over the top, this ad was a brilliant piece of political advertising. Its power is not in the media spend or even in the things The Donald has said that are replayed vividly in this ad -- we've heard it all before. No, the power of this ad is the choice of perspective: children.

Simply by changing the perspective of the ad from Hillary's point of view to these children's, Donald Trump's words come off as far more profoundly awful.

Every second of this ad moves the plot forward. Every scene has a purpose. And the result is a pure rush of emotion.

The entire story is pure joy as we see the dad's mental transformation with the wonderful back and forth between the memory of his astronaut lift-off and his actual Audi lift-off. The Bowie song, "Starman," gives the whole experience magical and appropriate context.

What I love most about this film is the strategy. By exaggerating how bad a person can be in life, yet still be considered a hero by donating organs, Donate Life dramatically magnifies the appeal of organ donation.

The ad is well cast, well shot, very well written, and builds from an emotionally satisfying insight. So good.

The power of this incredible film is that we don't see it coming. We're glowing in our satisfaction at the end with our red-headed hero finally finding the girl he'd been corresponding with via desk-writing and...boom.

I did not see it coming. Not at all.

And that's the point, right? This film could have had Sandy Hook Promise lecture kids about how important it is to keep a watchful eye at school, to look for the signs, and the proverbial "if you see something, say something." But they do one better. Way better.

It's a "product demo" wrapped up in an otherwise compelling storyline. And for that I give this spot my #1 position.

One thing all of these great films have is insight. Insight into our lives, into the way we currently see the world, and insight into how we'd like to see the world differently.

My only hope is that in 2017 the creativity and the storytelling of 2016 can not only continue, but improve even more.

I am a brand consultant and CEO of virtual-idea company, Ideasicle (www.ideasicle.com). Prior to founding Ideasicle, I worked at some of the most creative advertising agencies in the world, including Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Mullen and Arnold ...